Search results for ""pccs books""

This latest addition to the PCCS Books Primers in Counselling series offers a concise introduction to rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT). Devised by Albert Ellis in 1955, and subsequently further developed and refined, REBT is based on the principle that ‘People are not disturbed by the adversities that they face. Rather, they disturb themselves about these adversities by the rigid and extreme attitudes that they hold towards them.’ REBT therapists seek to help their clients identify, examine and change the rigid and extreme attitudes that underpin their emotional problems, and to develop alternative flexible and non-extreme alternative attitudes. As therapy proceeds, the therapist will help the client to take increasing responsibility for using these methods, with the ultimate aim that they become their own therapist. The book takes the reader step by step through these processes, culminating in a detailed transcription of a single session of REBT. It ends with an outline of research on the effectiveness of REBT. It also includes helpful forms for use with clients and links to further resources.

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After many years on the fringe, online counselling has rapidly become mainstream practice, propelled by the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet too often practitioners assume they can transition from in-person counselling without need for further training. In this essential book, Sarah Worley-James brings her many years' experience of online counselling and supervision to explore with the reader the practical and technical requirements of the work and also, importantly, the relational issues that working online brings. The book covers video, audio and text-based counselling, using vivid vignettes and case examples to bring to life its contents. All aspects, from transitioning and setting up the room and the equipment needed through to contracts, data storage and, above all, risk, are covered, with practical exercises to help you gain confidence in using these emerging media to their full creative potential.

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In June 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union. The decision plunged the five million EU residents in the UK into a toxic abyss of fear, anger, shock and shame. Suddenly they were ‘citizens of nowhere’ in a country they regarded as home and faced having to move back to their country of origin and start life again, often without their British partners and children. In 2019, a virus born in a little-known Chinese city over-ran the entire world, causing many millions of deaths and bringing national economies and people’s usual ways of life to a standstill. So much of what we took for granted crumbled to ashes as countries locked down and families mourned their dead. In this book, leading existential theorist and practitioner Emmy van Deurzen explores how we handle such existential crises, and how and what we can learn from them to better prepare ourselves psychologically for the future. Inevitably, we will face many more such calamities due to climate breakdown and the consequent international instability, she warns. One of those five million EU citizens, Emmy had to fight for her right to stay. Here she draws on her personal experiences of such crises, the accounts of others and on her extensive clinical, theoretical and research knowledge to argue that such events need not spell the end of life as we know it. Rather, they can open the door to different, richer and more thoughtful, relational ways of being in the world.

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This vibrant new book springs from the continued failure of the counselling and psychotherapy profession to adequately prepare trainees to meet the needs of today’s multi-ethnic, multiracial and multicultural society. The editors, both highly experienced trainers and academics, have gathered together here a group of new and established writers who draw on personal and professional experiences to present an array of fresh ideas and approaches. Their aim is to inform training curricula that would more adequately prepare therapy students to respond sensitively and in culturally appropriate ways to clients of diverse cultural and racial identities. Each chapter presents a challenge to all therapeutic practitioners, whatever their specialist role, to attend to and reflect on their personal and professional attitudes and behaviours in relation to clients of all heritages and origins. Issues addressed include unconscious privilege, ‘othering’, micro-aggressions, broaching, racism, discrimination, the search for meaning, identity complexity, intersectional understanding, heritage, biases and projections, trauma, intergenerational trauma, introjections, projection and decolonisation of the curriculum. This book is a wake-up call to the profession to develop more inclusive models of theory and practice, and to every counsellor, psychotherapist and counselling psychologist to review their professional practice and ensure a better fit between the aspirations and theories of their professional calling and the needs of our multi-ethnic, multiracial and multicultural society today.

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This is a book by practitioners for practitioners. Love, respect and time for listening to children and young people are what the person-centred psychotherapists and psychologists contributing to this volume have in common. They do this in a multiplicity of settings including primary and secondary education, a pupil referral unit, voluntary agencies, adoption services, hospital, hospice, community and the streets. All contributors give examples of their work with particular children and young people, aged from two to eighteen. They all share something of how they embody person-centred theory in their work, often engaging with the systems which impact on their work in the therapy room. They are all imbued with person-centred qualities, values and principles including respect, acceptance, empathy, awareness and self-questioning. All describe how much they have learnt from working with children and young people. The inherent political and systemic aspects of this work are highlighted throughout the book, which we hope will encourage and inspire all those interested in what person-centred practice with children and young people might look and feel like. 'Our own view is that modern childhood is in crisis - which itself perhaps reflects a crisis of adulthood more generally, and the milieus (family, educational, environmental) that we are creating for our children. These crises demand urgent consideration if the toxic juggernaut is to be halted and reversed. This welcome new book shows how person-centred practice can inform this consideration, and we wish it wide readership. The issues it raises and the responses it champions will be an essential aspect of the healthier future that we all wish to forge for children the world over' - Foreword, Richard House and Sue Palmer, November 2007.

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In this title, another distinguished international collection of theorists and practitioners lead the serious student to a cutting-edge appreciation of Unconditional Positive Regard. Once dubbed a 'controversial' condition by Germain Lietaer, and seen by Jerold Bozarth as the 'curative factor' in client-centred therapy, UPR has never before had so much attention focused on it. Readers from all disciplines can discover how contemporary person-centred therapists are thinking about, and working with, this 'core' condition.

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Genuineness, transparency, authenticity and realness are all terms used to convey Rogers' concept of congruence. This book is the first to specifically focus on, and collect critical explorations of, this under under-studied therapeutic condition. Drawing on the work of an international collection of leading writers, serious students of person-centred theory now have writing representing the most vibrant contemporary thinking on congruence thoughtfully drawn together in one volume.

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Part of the PCCS Books bestselling Primers in Counselling series, The Existential Counselling Primer is a concise summary of the philosophical origins of existentialist therapy, existentialist understandings of what it is to be human, and how both inform the theory and practice of existential counselling. It ends with a case study to demonstrate what the approach might look like in practice and includes a helpful glossary of key terms and terminology. The PCCS Books primers offer students concise, accessible descriptions of the key counselling approaches in widespread use today. The series is ideal for students needing texts that provide a bridge between introductory, intermediate and diploma courses or easily digested summaries of the different approaches for comparative essays and integrative theory assignments. The books are perfect supplements to the Steps in Counselling series to accompany students as they progress through training. They are also a helpful for qualified counsellors considering expanding their repertoire of skills. In this revised second edition, Mick Cooper has updated the references to incorporate important additions to the literature and added to some sections to reflect developments in thinking and practice.

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The new "Counselling Primer" series from PCCS Books, supplementary to the bestselling "Steps in Counselling" series, is suitable for beginners and higher level students who want a succinct boost to their knowledge of a particular area. Beginners will find the style companionable and reassuring, while more advanced readers will appreciate the incisive and authoritative writing with pointers for further reading and resources. Trainers will find the series a dependable learning aid. "Counselling Primers" bridge the gap between introductory, intermediate and diploma level courses, each book providing a concise overview of a particular counselling approach. Each "Counselling Primer" will be a perfect essay resource or a springboard for further study. This book presents an unparalleled, comprehensive introduction to integrative counselling with a person-centred foundation in the twenty-first century. Worsley presents the principled application of the non-formulaic use of self and experience in the service of the client.This book is for students requiring: comprehensive introductory text for initial integratively-oriented training; input for comparative essays and therapeutic approaches on integrative courses; and, a theory bridge between introductory and certificate/diploma level texts. Anyone requiring a concise, understandable yet authoritative guide to the principles of integrative (rather than eclectic) counselling theory and practice based on a foundation of person-centred therapy - the preferred approach of many thousands of counsellors.

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In this, the latest addition to the PCCS Books Critical Examination series, internationally acknowledged academic and psychotherapist, teacher and supervisor Keith Tudor focuses his spotlight on psychotherapy. The aim of the series is to subject the varied psy professions to rigorous critique by leading proponents in their fields. As Professor Ian Parker writes in the foreword: `Each theory is only as strong as its capacity to withstand sustained critical examination of the assumptions it makes about the world.’ Written in an accessible, conversational style, and drawing on a myriad of philosophies and practices, the book can be read and enjoyed by practitioners, academics and educators at every level, including students and those contemplating psychotherapy as a career progression. It aims to represent pluralism, diversity and internationalism and to encourage continued critical reflection on psychotherapy as a practice, discipline and profession. Its content is: • philosophical, in that it deals with fundamental issues of being human, and the nature of things such as relationships and how people change. • historical with regard to some of the traditions, concepts, and discussions in psychotherapy • political, in that it addresses isues of power and social justice • reflexive, in that it encourages a critical consciousness and advocates this in terms of practice • practical, on the basis that, as Marx put it: `The philosophers have only interpreted the world... the point is to change it’, and • developmental, in that it takes the reader on a fascinating journey through becoming, being and belonging as a psychotherapist. Chapter 1 concerns the nature of being critical. Chapter 2 questions the nature of psychotherapy and its scope and purpose. Chapter 3 critiques the different elements of practice – qualities, attitudes, conditions, skills and competence. Chapter 4 examines psychotherapy theory in the context of four intellectual traditions – the Enlightenment, Romanticism, modernism and postmodernism. Chapter 5 reflects critically on two elements that support critical practice – personal therapy and supervision. Chapter 6 examines the knowledge that underpins research, both the methodology and the practice. Chapter 7 considers education and training in psychotherapy. Chapter 8 concludes with some critical reflections on psychotherapy as a discipline, as a profession, and as offering social criticism.

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Conventional therapeutic psychology suggest that we are essentially self-creating and able (with a little help from a therapist) to heal ourselves of the emotional ills that beset us. This kind of view reflects the wishful thinking and make-believe that are necessary for the success of modern consumer capitalism, but it does not reflect the way things are. The alternative set out here, based on the author's many years' experience of practice as a clinical psychologist, offers a language and a set of concepts that enable us to understand ourselves as real, embodied beings in an equally real world that resists mere wishfulness. Our experience of ourselves, as well as much of our conduct, are accounted for in terms of the social operations of power and interest - and a framework is established for making sense of our emotional distress as the outcome of environmental pressures. David Smail argues that to take ourselves seriously as social beings, embodied in a real world over which as individuals we have very little influence, is by no means grounds for despair. Rather, it encourages modesty, appreciation of good fortune, compassion and recognition of our common humanity.

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Modern life is tough on young people and their mental health is suffering. Psychotherapist Jeanine Connor turns her focus to this generation in another series of vivid portraits of what goes on behind the doors of her therapy room. These therapeutic snapshots bring to life the theories pioneered by Freud and make compulsive reading.

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Global heating, catastrophic climate change and the growing reality of ecosystem damage and accelerated species extinction hang over us all. For the counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, coaches and their supervisors who make up the talking therapy professions, these topics are increasingly coming up in their work. They must deal both with their clients' and communities' emotions and responses - their fear, anger, denial, grief, helplessness and hopelessness - and with their own. The chapters in this thought-provoking, honest, moving and sobering book explore the frameworks, theoretical constructs and ways of working they have devised to hold hope and build agency in the face of all this complexity, uncertainty and injustice. Contributors from a range of cultural backgrounds and professional disciplines discuss our inter-relationships with the natural world, indigenous practices and understandings, acknowledging our betrayal of our children and young people, how to go on practising at the edge of despair, staying well in unwell times, 'rewilding' hope, deep adaptation coaching and much more.

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It is only in the last two or three decades that the medical model has come to dominate psychological theory and practice. This book considers the evidence that points us towards freeing ourselves from this creeping medicalisation and recognising the influence of our environments and circumstances on our psychological wellbeing. Contributors from a range of modalities illustrate how to practise in a demedicalised way. Drawing on these examples from the field and perspectives from different theoretical models, the book demonstrates that an approach freed from the medical model provides the ethically axiomatic framework for psychological practice today.

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This wide-ranging book takes a person-centred approach to supporting the person and their families/carers to live with dementia and challenge the stigma attached to the condition. Divided into four parts, it starts with the voices of people with dementia themselves, as they describe their own experience and how they are living with the disease. It moves on to look at how the range of caring and support professions can help people living with dementia and their families plan and prepare for and cope better with their deteriorating condition. It then turns to practical aspects of living with dementia - dementia in the workplace, communication, safety and the role of technology and design in prolonging independence - and day-to-day considerations, such as managing insomnia and eating well. It ends with an inspiring section on the many imaginative ways people with dementia can be helped to discover and continue to enjoy cultural and creative activities that celebrate their lives and promote their abilities.

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Available for the first time in paperback, this 2007 second edition of Howard Kirschenbaum's biography of Carl Rogers extends to over 700 pages and includes a more detailed personal and professional history, an evaluation of the Wisconsin years and a full account of the last decade of Rogers' life. The years that followed the publication of the first edition of Carl Rogers' biography in 1979 turned out to be one of the most important periods of his career. Until now this work has not been widely known. Now, more than a quarter of a century after the first edition, Kirschenbaum has added deeper understanding of Rogers' contributions to psychology, the helping professions and society. On a personal level, access to recently revealed private papers tells us much more about Carl Rogers the man than was known to many of his closest associates. Brought to us by a masterly biographer whose own understanding of Carl Rogers, psychotherapy, education, and the human condition has matured over the intervening years. This much-anticipated second edition reflects a wiser and more balanced perspective of his subject. Now fully referenced, this is the life and work of Carl Rogers - no more, no less.

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The current mainstream way of describing psychological and emotional distress assumes it is the result of medical illnesses that need diagnosing and treating. This book summarises a powerful alternative to psychiatric diagnosis that asks not 'What's wrong with you?' but 'What's happened to you?' The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) was co-produced by a core group of psychologists and service users and launched in 2018, prompting considerable interest in the UK and worldwide. It argues that emotional distress, unusual experiences and many forms of troubled or troubling behaviour are understandable when viewed in the context of a person's life and circumstances, the cultural and social norms we are expected to live up to and the degree to which we are exposed to trauma, abuse, injustice and inequality. The PTMF offers all of us the tools to create new, hopeful narratives about the reasons for our distress that are not based on psychiatric diagnosis and to find ways forward as individuals, families, social groups and whole societies.

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In an era when more people are taking psychiatric drugs than ever before, Joanna Moncrieff's explosive book challenges the claims for their mythical powers. Drawing on extensive research, she demonstrates that psychiatric drugs do not 'treat' or 'cure' mental illness by acting on hypothesised chemical imbalances or other abnormalities in the brain. There is no evidence for any of these ideas. Moreover, any relief the drugs may offer from the distress and disturbance of a mental disorder can come at great cost to people's physical health and their ability to function in day-to-day life. And, once on these drugs, coming off them can be very difficult indeed. This book is a wake-up call to the potential damage we are doing to ourselves by relying on chemical cures for human distress. Its clear, concise explanations will enable people to make a fully informed decision about the benefits and harms of these drugs and whether and how to come off them if they so choose.

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This is a unique collection of poems written by and for people who have survived our mental health system and the diagnostic process that is used to categorise and treat mental and emotional distress. In October 2016, Jo Watson launched A Disorder for Everyone (AD4E) – an international campaign to challenge the culture of psychiatric diagnosis and the labelling of expressions of emotional distress as medical disorders. Since then hundreds of people have attended AD4E events all over the UK, and thousands have joined the campaign Facebook group ‘Drop the Disorder!’ What began as a shout of protest has become an international roar. Poetry has long been used to give voice to resistance and to drive change in all kinds of social movements, and it is a central aspect of this campaign as well. It has been at the heart of every AD4E event and, more recently, several online poetry events have brought together poets and poetry-lovers from across the globe under the Drop the Disorder! banner. We Are the Change-Makers is a collection of these and other poems that seek to describe the otherwise inexpressible and challenge the power of psychiatry that misrepresents and medicates what it does not understand.

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Pluralistic therapy offers an open, inquiring, flexible framework for client-centred practice. It was introduced in response to the schoolism that emerged from the growing numbers of competing schools and models of therapy in the early years of the 21st century. Built on the principles of pluralism, it promotes partnership and equality between client and practitioner, client-defined goals, and a willingness and flexibility in the therapist to adapt their ways of working and draw on a range of models and approaches to best suit the client's needs and preferences. It values difference and promotes inclusivity and dialogue within the field. In this long-awaited book, Kate Smith and Ani de la Prida summarise the principles, underpinning philosophy and key features of the approach. They also consider the emerging research into pluralistic therapy and what it can look like in practice.

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This 5th edition of the bestselling introduction to counselling is thoroughly revised and updated. Pete Sanders, Paula J Williams and Andy Rogers position counselling in contemporary society and render the theory, practice and origins of counselling understandable to all. Other short contributions explore the role of power, language and race in the field of counselling.

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In October 2016 Jo Watson hosted the very first `A Disorder for Everyone!' event in Birmingham, with psychologist Dr Lucy Johnstone, to explore (and explode) the culture of psychiatric diagnosis in mental health. To provide a space to continue the debate after the event, Jo also set up the now hugely popular and active Facebook group `Drop the Disorder!'.; Since then, they have delivered events in towns and cities across the UK, bringing together activists, survivors and professionals to debate psychiatric diagnosis. How and why does psychiatric diagnosis hold such power? What harm it can do? What are the alternatives to diagnosis, and how it can be positively challenged?; This book takes the themes, energy and passions of the AD4E events - bringing together many of the event speakers with others who have stories to tell and messages to share in the struggle to challenge diagnosis.; This is an essential book for everyone of us who looks beyond the labels.

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Searching for a Rose Garden is an incisive critique of all that is unhelpful about sanestream understandings of and responses to mental distress. Drawing on world-wide survivor activism and scholarship, it explores the toxicity of psychiatry and the co-option and corruption of survivor knowledge and practice by the mainstream. Chapters on survivor research and theory reveal the constant battle to establish and maintain a safe space for experiential knowledge within academia and beyond. Other chapters explore how survivor-developed projects and practices are cultivating a wealth of bright blooms in the most hostile of environments, providing an important vision for the future.

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This book investigates and explores the issues of race and culture in 'a single case study' of one of Rogers' own demonstration films: Carl Rogers Counsels an Individual. Part 1: Right to be Desperate. Part 2: On Anger and Hurt, in order to generate multiple meanings of how person-centred therapy can be more inclusive of Black and ethnic minority clients. The films show a young Black man in a state of remission from leukaemia, in therapy with Carl Rogers. The emerging knowledge and innovative clinical practices that arise from the analysis in the various chapters are all ultimately concerned with multicultural and diversity issues in counselling and psychotherapy. The contributors, from a wide variety of therapeutic approaches and modalities, raise fundamental questions concerning the intersection of race, culture and ethnicity with the therapeutic process.

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In this book Jerold Bozarth presents a collection of twenty revised papers and new writings on person-centred therapy representing over 40 years' work as an innovator and theoretician. He reflects upon Carl Rogers' theoretical foundations, emphasises the revolutionary nature of these foundations and offers extended frames for understanding this radical approach to therapy. This book will be essential reading for all with an interest in Client-Centred Therapy and the Person-Centred Approach.

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Freshly updated, this contribution to the PCCS Books popular ‘Primer’ series is written by one of the UK’s leading authorities on focusing-oriented counselling. Developed by Eugene Gendlin from Carl Rogers’ pioneering model of person-centred counselling at the University of Chicago Counseling Center in the 1950s, focusing-oriented counselling can be applied to enhance any model of talking therapy. Its primary focus is what the client says, but also, importantly, what they have not yet found the words to express – that is, how we articulate the ‘felt sense’ of our experiences. This revised and extended edition offers a comprehensive but concise description of the history, theory and practice of the approach, how and why it ‘works’, the debates around it, what it brings to the counsellor’s primary mode of practice, and the evidence to support it. This is an invaluable guide and introductory outline both for students and for qualified counsellors seeking to enhance their clients’ therapeutic outcomes.

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Originally published by Whurr in 1995, PCCS Books is very pleased to be re-issuing this excellent and still popular book. This book poses a number of everyday questions, such as 'What makes us tick?' 'Where do my values come from?'How did I become who I am?' and 'Why are relationships so important?' In his acclaimed authoritative and accessible style, Tony Merry explores each of these issues, showing how and why person-centred psychology takes an optimistic view of human nature. In the process, he also provides some novel ideas to help explain why people behave the way they do. This book looks at how person-centred psychology can make a positive contribution to education, multiculturalism, power issues and living constructively with each other, as well as to counselling and psychotherapy. This work is intended for psychology undergraduates, trainee and beginning nurses, teachers, support workers, counsellors and psychotherapists who want a practical exploration of person-centred psychology. *Please be aware – this book is reproduced from a scanned original document. In some cases the text appears with a few slight imperfections, but this doesn't effect the standard of legiblity.*

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The new "Counselling Primer" series from PCCS Books, supplementary to the bestselling "Steps in Counselling" series, is suitable for beginners and higher level students who want a succinct boost to their knowledge of a particular area. "Counselling Primers" bridges the gap between introductory, intermediate and diploma level courses, each book providing a concise overview of a particular counselling approach. The perfect essay resources or a springboard for further study. "The Person-Centred Counselling Primer" by popular author Pete Sanders is the first in the "Counselling Primers" series, comprising 120 pages of essential information in Sanders' approachable and encouraging style. This book presents an unparalleled, comprehensive description of person-centred counselling in the twenty-first century. Personality theory, motivation, therapy theory, non-directivity and the process of change are all covered in Pete Sanders' easy and accessible style. It is written for: students requiring: comprehensive introductory text for initial person-centred training, input for comparative essays and therapeutic approaches on integrative courses, a theory bridge between introductory and certificate/diploma level texts. It is useful for anyone requiring a concise, understandable yet authoritative guide to person-centred counselling theory and practice.

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Why do not more client-centred therapists work in psychiatric settings? Whatever the answer, this book is a solid attempt to pave the way for a greater involvement. Lisbeth Sommerbeck brings over 25 years' experience of working as a client-centred therapist in psychiatric contexts to her explanation of the psychiatric system and how to forge a working relationship with other staff. This is a positive bridge-building book, aiming to bring together two helping cultures that otherwise might see each other as hostile. With diploma and masters students in sight it should both widen placement possibilities, and encourage therapists to work in multi-disciplinary teams with confidence.

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This timely book explores the interface between the Person-Centred Approach and radical political theory and activity. Specifically, it explores the contribution that a critical analysis of social and political factors can make to the practice of person-centred therapy, and to examine the contribution that person-centred theory and practice can make to the wider sphere of socio-political theory and activity. An international collection of chapters offers critical analysis of the PCA and difference and diversity; class; culture and racism; sexuality; power and feminism. Other contributions present a range of work involving social change as a necessary and sufficient condition for therapeutic personality growth; emotional literacy; sociotherapy; work with refugees and asylum seekers; peace groups; ecopolitics and spirituality." Politicising the Person-Centred Approach" is primarily aimed at practitioners and, to some extent, students, of the person-centred approach who have an interest in political issues and concerns, but will also be of interest to service users, practitioners and theorists in the field of critical psychiatry and critical psychology, who may be interested in developing the theoretical foundations of their work and expanding their theoretical and practical horizons.

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'Trauma-informed' has become a buzzword in the counselling and psychotherapy arena and the wider worlds of health and social care research and practice. But what does it mean in relation to practitioners' day-to-day work with clients? Susan Dale argues that all therapeutic work should put the client's needs, not the therapeutic model, at the heart of the process. Here she describes how she shapes her own collaborative narrative approach to work with people who have experienced trauma, whether from childhood abuse and neglect, violence, combat or other circumstances. Drawing on the literature and the first-hand accounts of trauma-experienced co-researchers, Dale weaves a narrative that demonstrates trauma-informed practice and its impact in the real-life therapy room. She includes approaches that are not formally badged as 'trauma therapies' as well as recognised models such as EMDR to demonstrate how such an approach, applied collaboratively and with acute sensitivity to the needs of the individual client, can make a lasting difference to people striving to rebuild lives that have been shattered by trauma.

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'A revolution is underway in how we think about human variation. It has the potential to transform the social and political landscape, sweeping away walls and fences that stop so many people from fully participating. Psychotherapy should be in the vanguard of this revolution, but it isn't,' writes Nick Totton in this bold analysis of human difference. His aim is to challenge and also help the reader who self-defines as 'normal'- be they talking therapist, body therapist, client or anyone else - to interrogate their own normality, and hopefully to relinquish the word and all the privileges it brings. It is time, he writes, 'to dismantle that identity, pull down that statue, abandon that high plinth and rest on the solid ground of difference'. Then, he argues, psychotherapy practitioners may be in a position to learn from their clients how best to work with them.The book addresses differences of bodily capacity, gender and lifestyle differences, differences of skin colour and neuro differences. It also tackles differences between the human and non-human beings who inhabit the Earth. Totton's call is for recognition that we share this planet, and that creating standards of 'normality' leads to exclusion as well as inclusion, with all the psychological and other harms that brings.

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Do you need your psychiatric diagnosis? This book will help you decide. In this second, updated edition of a best-selling title, Lucy Johnstone revisits the revolution that is underway in mental health. No one doubts that people’s distress is very real – but are they actually suffering from illnesses that need a diagnosis? In today’s world, where mental health is a crucial topic, this might seem an odd question. And yet even the authors of the diagnostic manuals are admitting that these categories are not supported by evidence. No one has been able to identify the ‘chemical imbalances’ that are said to cause distress. No one can reliably distinguish one ‘mental illness’ from another. And the more labels and pills we offer, the faster the increase in mental health problems. Something is badly wrong. Johnstone shows that we need to change the question from ‘What’s wrong with you?’ to ‘What’s happened to you?’ Distress, even its severe forms, arises out of our lives and relationships. Narratives and personal stories show us this truth, whereas labels obscure it. The book ends with a new, hard-hitting analysis of the political, economic and social forces that drive the diagnostic model. In our increasingly competitive, unequal and fragmented world, we are all struggling. We are told the answer lies in finding the right diagnosis. We are encouraged to talk about our ‘mental health’ instead of the conditions of our lives. And increasingly, we ourselves seek out labels which reassure us that our feelings of shame, failure and difference are not our fault. Indeed, as Johnstone shows, we are not to blame. But nor will the rapid spread of diagnostic labels provide an answer. There are better ways forward. This book is about choice. It is about demystifying one of the most influential myths of our age and giving people the information to make up their own minds. It opens up hope and new ways forward for anyone who has been given a diagnostic label.

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Cognitive behaviour therapy is arguably the most well-known, most widely used and most accessible form of talking therapy in the Western world. It has been adopted by the NHS as the mainstay of its IAPT primary care therapy programme. It converts readily and successfully into online formats and self-help programmes. In this updated introduction to CBT, three of its foremost proponents and practitioners summarise its origins, principles, how it works in practice, and the research that underpins its widespread use. This second, revised edition updates the research and includes the third and fourth ‘waves’ of cognitive behaviour approaches and other more recent developments that have emerged since the first edition was published.

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Rates of diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in children, such as depression, ADHD and autistic spectrum disorders, have shot up in recent years. So too has the prescription of antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs and stimulants. Yet the diagnoses are based on weak science, questionable research and powerful financial incentives. In this updated edition of his powerful critique, consultant child psychiatrist Sami Timimi questions why Western societies routinely seek to manage children’s behaviour with dangerous medication. He offers a humane and child-centred alternative that is about understanding our children’s distress, not medicating it, and practical advice that all parents, carers and teachers will find helpful.

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This bestselling series presents unparalleled, comprehensive descriptions of key counselling approaches in the twenty-first century. Ideal for students requiring a theory bridge between introductory, intermediate and diploma courses or focused input for comparative essays and integrative theory assignments. In The Single-Session Counselling Primer: principles and practice, Windy Dryden outlines the why, what and how of single-session counselling and the evidence that supports it. He makes a powerful case for its wider availability alongside other forms of therapy. Where it is appropriate, focused, agreed and there is the possibility of further sessions (if need dictates), it can massively increase access to talking therapies and enable clients to take their own steps to effect real change in their lives.

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Hearing voices, seeing visions and similar out-of-the-ordinary experiences have long intrigued and mystified humankind. The dominant scientific and medical understandings of these phenomena tend to problematise them. This ground-breaking book builds on the work of the Hearing Voices Movement and of the researchers Marius Romme and Sandra Escher in challenging this perception. The book is a collection of chapters by voice hearers, mental health professionals and researchers describing a myriad of therapeutic and creative approaches and strategies that people find helpful in relating to voices when they find them distressing. It is based on insights, understandings and knowledge derived from the first-hand experience of voice hearers and from mental health practice and research that show that the person's relationship with the voices and what the voices say are key to understanding and living with them; that voices are not in themselves a problem and can even be helpful; that there is a strong connection between voices and unwanted emotions; that life-long medication is not the inevitable and only treatment and, most importantly perhaps, that voice hearers can live well with their voices (even if it is sometimes hard work). The book is presented in three parts: Part one, 'Hearing our voices', includes voice hearers' perspectives as to what has helped them to recover from breakdown so that they are able to live full lives, including Hearing Voices Groups and peer support. Part two, 'Emerging social and therapeutic approaches to working with voices', explores different mainstream non-medical and psychotherapeutic approaches that help voice hearers to make sense of and live well with their voices. Part three, 'Creative approaches to working with voices', describes using creative arts, such as dance, drama and poetry, to help voice hearers relate to their voices in positive ways.

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'Talking it Better' is a practical book about the everyday practice of counselling and psychotherapy, written by a practitioner for fellow practitioners. Using case studies based on his own clients, Elton carefully examines what helps - and what hinders - the process of change in the therapy room. At the heart of therapeutic work, he argues, is the development of effective mind skills. He explains how counsellors and therapists can borrow valuable ideas from the teachers of skills such as swimming, reading music or learning to drive. And he shows us that, when it comes to developing our mind skills, practice is often far more important than insight or theory. Marie-Anne wants to manage the sergeant major in her head who keeps telling her what to do. Calum wants to learn to hear what his partner is really saying, rather than what he fears she is. Isobel wants to stop rushing to help people and then resenting them because they take her for granted. These, and the many other characters in this book, were profoundly stuck until, through 'talking it better', each found a unique path taking them closer to the self they would prefer to be.

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Robin and Joan Shohet are pioneers in supervision training for the helping professions. Much more than a manual, this book embodies the heart, soul, spirit and values of their training courses - a golden treasury of insight, wisdom and practical techniques. Its detailed descriptions of their courses apply directly to the work of the helping professions and the therapeutic relationship; what they say apply also to how we all negotiate relationships in our work and our lives. The book opens with the '23 principles' that form the basis of their beliefs about the role and function of supervision. It goes on to describe in detail five of the courses they have been running for some 40 years. These are vivid scripts taken directly from course recordings, bringing to life the interactions, exchanges and relationships played out in the training process. Here we have the Core Course, the Seven-Eyed Model, the Group Supervision Course, the Advanced Course, and the one-day workshop Fear and Love in Supervision. The book ends with a bank of resources drawn from Robin's published writings over the years. These are bold, brave, sometimes raw and always deeply honest accounts of the Shohets' inspirational supervision training - each accompanied by one of Joan's cake recipes.

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This provocative collection of essays presents a powerful critique of contemporary discourse that portrays work - paid employment - as a moral imperative, essential for our health and well-being. The contributors describe the mental health impact of modern-day workplaces, with their precarity and constant managerial scrutiny. They throw light on the emerging role of the psychologist and psychotherapist as agents of the state within the welfare system. And they question the deployment of mindfulness and other workplace `wellness' initiatives in the place of more genuine and collective attempts to transform work. The Work Cure is an invitation to imagine a different kind of future, where employment no longer represents the chief source of security and meaning, so integral to our well-being. It is also essential reading for anyone who has doubted whether positivity, self-improvement and `resilience' can really be the answer to work's problems.

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Older people rarely feature in counselling literature, and the very old barely at all. Helen Kewell seeks to address this often overlooked topic with a vibrant collection of resonant case studies describing her encounters with some of the old and very old clients with whom she has worked as a counsellor. Woven into these accounts are her personal reflections on how working with these clients has changed her and contributed to her own growth as a counsellor and as a human being. She also describes the theoretical and philosophical works that have influenced her practice - looking to humanistic, existentialist and person-centred approaches to guide her in this largely uncharted territory. Among the people described in this book, we meet Maggie, for whom death is very close and whose day-to-day experiencing is insular, private and diminished to one room and a few hours of wakefulness. We meet Kate, for whom reawakened feelings from long ago and the challenge to strongly held beliefs prove too much to face. We meet Bobby, who valiantly engages in reassessing and reconstructing his life narrative and through this finds some release, and Susan, who finds herself facing life transitions much earlier than expected and learns to transcend her circumstances and find a new way of living. And last, we meet Tom who, despite the loss of all he holds dear, manages also to transcend his circumstances and face death on his own terms. Helen's aim in this book is to use story-telling about real people living real lives to inspire others to consider this work as possible, necessary and meaningful. Who is this book for?The book will appeal to practising counsellor and psychotherapists, particularly those from humanistic traditions and specialising in bereavement and palliative care settings, and more widely to anyone - professionals and care workers alike - working with elderly people in a caring or therapeutic capacity, in the residential and nursing care sectors and the voluntary sector. It will also be of interest to trainee counsellors, general and mental health nurses, occupational therapists and GPs, and to trainers.

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In 1964 Dr Everett Shostrom, a psychologist from California, produced a series of educational films titled "Three Approaches to Psychotherapy", therein filming complete psychotherapy sessions for the very first time. Three celebrated therapists demonstrated their models on a willing client called Gloria. Dr Shostrom had asked Gloria to be prepared to discuss, on film, a subject that was currently troubling her as a recently divorced mother - dating men and dealing with direct questions about her sex life from her fourth-grade daughter, 'Pammy'. At the time, the topic had pith, intrigue and moral uncertainty. Although the interviews quickly diverged from sex, an aura remained that underscored the state of psychotherapy, the era of the mid-60s, and the evolving consciousness and 'liberation' of women during that decade.Immediately upon the release of the films, reverberations began. They were translated into multiple languages and became a regular part of the college curriculum in psychology departments in the USA and abroad. The three therapists - Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis and Fritz Perls - were solicited for their responses and evaluations; the films were, controversially, shown in theatres and on TV. There was a lawsuit and a life-long relationship. The success of the films was said to be down to 'Gloria's genius'. Countless papers, theories, rumours and idiosyncratic research titbits circulated about Gloria and the films, yet what she experienced, how she was treated after the filming and how her personal life evolved, was never fully revealed. She had brilliantly happy moments, devoted relationships and profound loss. Her generosity with her time and spirit was her spark of grace.This beautifully written memoir blends the intimacies of family life, intuitive characterisation and an insight into the development of psychotherapy in California in the 60s. Gloria's daughter Pamela J Burry ('Pammy'), whose innocent question sparked Gloria's disquiet, has woven together a legacy of letters, notes, transcripts, tapes, articles and her own memories to write about a life which became the subject of much academic analysis, moral outrage, rumours of suicide and speculation in the years following the release of "Three Approaches to Psychotherapy", more popularly known as 'The Gloria Films'.

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This book is a groundbreaking development in modern mental health because it recognises the importance of the first hand experience and argues that hearing voices is not a sign of madness but a reaction to serious problems in life. Must-read book for all concerned with mental health issues.

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Follow-up volume to the best-selling, critically acclaimed "Person-Centred Psychopathology", "Person-Centred Practice: Case Studies in Positive Psychology" takes forward the work of the previous volume by rooting the theory of that volume in the practice of internationally renowned practitioners and scholars. The book demonstrates that person-centred theory has real depth in its ability to address the distress of challenging client groups.Case studies show how mature practitioners engage with a range of issues in psychopathology: eating disorders, post-natal and maternal distress, childhood sexual abuse, long-term depression and its existential components, issues of spirituality, psychotic functioning and loss of psychological contact. There is a focus on the first-person voice of three clients and reflections on training by a clinical psychologist. Two case studies look at the political and social aspects of therapy. There is an analysis of a previously unpublished interview with Gina by Carl Rogers, a paper on models for understanding hallucinations, and a chapter on assessment instruments which are congruent with person-centred practice.This book builds bridges between counselling theory and practice, as well as between person-centred therapy and the new and important discipline of positive psychology.

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The literature of suicidology has studiously ignored those who actually experience suicidal feelings. Webb suggests this is no accident but a very deliberate exclusion of this critically important first-person knowledge. Webb rejects the medical model that claims suicide is caused by some notional mental illness, and discusses the spiritual wisdom that released him from the persistent urge to die

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A counselling qualification can open doors to a wealth of career opportunities, but there is little guidance to help newly qualified practitioners or those considering a change of pathway. In this essential guide for anyone looking to explore different arenas of practice, Rick Hughes has gathered leading practitioners to offer practical advice.

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This is a book about Covid-19 as it happened, with all the fear, horror, losses, grief, chaos, revelations, frustrations and sheer heroism. It is also a book about the future - what we learned and didn't learn; what we hoped for when the lockdowns eased and we could believe there could be a future. It is a vivid, sometimes distressing, often uplifting and powerfully moving account of a nation's journey through a nightmare, told in the words of individuals describing their own and others' experiences and how they and their families and communities coped. We hear stories from many perspectives: the bereaved; the frontline workers; those still battling the long and disabling tail of the virus; the marginalised and vulnerable; the children and young people. These are voices that are rarely heard, talking of small acts of generosity, courage, private suffering and quiet endurance. Alongside, expert commentaries draw the themes together and offer further reading and resources. So many of us swore we would learn from the pandemic. This book will help us do so.

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What causes mental health problems? Nature or nurture? Brain and biology? Genetic inheritance or social environment? Revised and updated, this concise book explains what we know today about the origins of mental distress, drawing on the latest research from across the world. The answer is of course a bit of everything in combination - because the human body and brain are shaped by the environments we inhabit and what happens to us. Human distress is caused by loss, trauma, violence, childhood abuse, social injustices, poverty and deprivation. How well we are able to cope with these stressors likewise depends on a multiplicity of factors and is unique to each individual. An essential addition to the Straight Talking Introduction series, the book supports the call for more understanding of the social determinants of mental wellbeing. It adds to the arguments for treatments that do not rely on the busted hypothesis of neurochemical imbalances.

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